How To Do An SEO Competitor Analysis

Last Updated: November 1, 2022

Rank higher. Get more traffic. Increase conversions. Earn more loyal customers.

An SEO competitor analysis works as a powerful research strategy in helping you achieve all of these goals. The magic happens when you uncover SEO opportunities you may not have otherwise seen, or ever even considered!

What is an SEO competitor analysis?

SEO competitor analysis (sometimes referred to as competitive analysis) involves researching your direct search competitors to understand their target keywords, content strategy, backlink profile, and more, for the purpose of reverse engineering the most successful elements of these tactics into your own SEO strategy.

Instead of guessing which keywords to target, content to create, or links to build, you can instead research your competitors, analyze what's already working for them, and build upon that success.

An SEO competitor analysis can help you successfully answer questions like:

• Who are my actual SEO competitors?
• What keywords should I target?
• What does the competitive landscape look like?
• What topics should I cover?
• Where can I find valuable links?

Let's look at a real-world example:

Imagine you operate a pet supply store, and you’re one of a few competing stores in town. Your customers are happy, but you know they also visit other stores because they can't buy everything in one place. So you go on a road trip to gather competitive intelligence. You visit the other stores to understand the popular items they offer. By offering these items yourself - or even superior ones - you help your customers make fewer trips, and in turn, you gain more business, and eventually, brand advocates!

There are many ways to do a competitor analysis for SEO, but the fundamental process works like this:

• Identify your competitors

• Analyze what's working for your competition (keywords, content, links, etc.)

• Leverage this intelligence to improve your own SEO efforts

Consider this your starter guide. Here's what we'll cover:

1. How To Find Your True SEO Competitors
2. How To Conduct Competitor Keyword Analysis
3. How To Do A Competitor SERP Analysis
4. How To Analyze Your Competitors' Content
   
5. How To Perform a Competitor Backlink Analysis

Here’s a helpful workflow you can follow along the way:

To walk you through this guide, we've put together a free, downloadable template that you can use to perform your own SEO competitor analysis. This template will also help you create an actionable report.

1. Make a copy of the spreadsheet by clicking here
2. Follow the instructions to gather data
3. Replace the sample data with your own
4. Sort, filter, and customize to your needs

If you're serious about beating your competition, we recommend reading this SEO Competitor Analysis guide front-to-back. We've tried to make it as concise and easy to understand as possible, and learning the basics of SEO is a vital first step in achieving your online business goals.

Go through at the pace that suits you best, and be sure to take note of resources we link to throughout the chapters — they're also worthy of your attention.

If you want to take a more systematic and comprehensive approach to learning SEO - or train your entire team! - check out the Moz Academy SEO Competitive Analysis Certification. We've consolidated all the resources you need to learn how to confidently implement a competitive analysis strategy with unique learning strategies, task lessons, and quizzes to test your knowledge. To top it off, you’ll be able to validate your expertise with a Linkedin Moz SEO Competitive Analysis Certification badge!

Next up: How To Find Your True SEO Competitors